Former President of Refco Appeals to Supreme Court after 10 Year Sentence

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | Federal Legislation

On Sept 28, 2009, Tone N. Grant, the former president of Refco Inc., filed a petition for a writ of certiorari.  The petition questions the way a lower court handled evidence concerning documents that were given to the Securities and Exchange Commission.  During an SEC investigation, Grant voluntarily turned over numerous documents.  Contained in those documents were notes from a meeting that Grant attended which the government claims shows his involvement in the scheme.  In 2008, Grant was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his apparent role in a scheme which hid $430 million in trading losses from investors, the public, and government. 

The petition presents two questions for the Court:  (1) whether the lower court violated Grant’s 5th Amendment right to due process when it refused to allow testimony that Grant knowingly handed over the notes, showing a consciousness of innocence; (2) whether a defendant should be held to a more demanding standard when presenting evidence of a consciousness of innocence (as opposed to evidence of consciousness of guilt presented by the prosecution).  According to Grant, the prosecution deliberately mislead the jury by arguing that his “claim of intentional production was made up and without factual support, despite knowledge that Mr. Grant had sought to prove that very fact with testimony that has been excluded on the prosecutor’s objection.”

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